I spent the full moon up in Findhorn, about 40 minutes drive east of Inverness, home to my yoga teacher, Louise Simmons and her partner, John, and the famous gigantic vegetables.

So the story goes that back Scotland 1962 a man called Peter Caddy was fired from his job as a hotel manager in the nearby town of Forres. Losing his job also meant losing the hotel room that was home to his family, and it had to be vacated within four hours. With nowhere to go, Peter, his wide Eileen, their three boys and his colleague, Dorothy Maclean, packed a trailer and eventually found themselves at a sandy trailer park on the edge of a windswept garbage dump near Findhorn beach.

With little money, no prospects and winter vastly approaching, the future seemed bleak for the Caddy’s but, luckily for them, they had a connection to spirit.

On the first night at Findhorn - which is an amazingly special place btw - in meditation, Eileen received guidance guidance, which said, “Although it may seem to be the worst day of your lives, all is very, very well and where you are will become a place of great beauty which “thousands upon thousands” will visit”. Not knowing what to think about this “guidance” they simply just tried to get through the bitter winter.

When spring approached, Eileen intuited further guidance, which basically told her “You are to start a Garden, which will become a center of light that reaches the four corners of the world and it will become a model for the troubled planet.”

Despite the harsh conditions, the Caddys toiled working the land and with nothing more than a deep desire to feed their family and guidance, the Caddys were able to transform a sandy wind swept garbage dump to an vibrant other worldly garden. As their connection to the land and spirit grew, so did the vegetables until they were multiple times the size of their common garden counterparts.

People would flock to Findhorn by the thousands to see the garden with giant vegetables, and would leave touched by the very atmosphere of the beautiful energy that now encompassed the entire area.

Interestingly, when scientists would later come to test the soil conditions they would find that it contained no organic matter and retained little moisture. Renowned soil expert Professor R. Lindsey Robb was quoted as saying “The vigor and health [of the plants] could not be explained by known scientific, organic husbandry”.

Needless to say, the incredible garden at Findhorn brought the Caddys world wide publicity and while the vegetables eventually returned to normal size, the phenomenon had by then captured the world’s attention.

Inevitably, other people came to join the Caddys and Dorothy in their work and soon the original group of six grew into a small community, committed to their spiritual path and to expanding the garden in harmony with nature.

In 1972 the community was formally registered as a Scottish Charity called the Findhorn Foundation. In the 1970s and 80s it grew to approximately 300 members.

In an interesting turn, the Foundation purchased the hotel from which Peter had been fired, and used it as a centre for workshops and and accommodation. In 1983 it purchased the caravan park in Findhorn, which is now known as The Park Ecovillage.

To this day the Findhorn Foundation continues striving to co-create with the intelligence of nature and to take inspired action toward a vision of a better world.

From my experience, there is indeed something very special about the land and energy here at Findhorn, which resonates with me hugely. I have been lucky to get to know many little pockets of magic around the world, such as Byron Bay in Australia, Pokhara in Nepal, Glastonbury in Somerset, UK and of course our own little spot of magic in the form of Sark, but never have I felt energy quite like Findhorn. It is ethereal, calming, healing, inspiring and uplifting.

Not only that, but while the land may be sandy, it still gifts vibrant and beautiful life. Louise’s garden and allotment is abundant, absolutely abundant, in produce. I couldn’t quite believe how alive the whole place felt, and how much further ahead the veggies are in their growth than here sun warmer Guernsey. It made my moon garden seem rather pathetic this year!

It’s not only the land though, but the general welcoming feel of the community, this in the actual village of Findhorn, let alone in the Eco Village of the Findhorn Foundation itself. The village itself is marvellous, it only has two shops but one of them, the Bakehouse, is a gem, selling organic produce and products and offering a plethora of very yummy home made food, such as soups, dhals and humous etc, and all sorts of cakes and bakes. I wish we had something similar here on Guernsey, it is much needed!

I find Louise’s teachings so inspiring, her knowledge of the body is astounding, and the way she shares this, with imagery and poetic language speaks to my heart and soul in a way that not other yoga teacher has managed to touch. I love attending the small group sessions that she offers, both in the village hall, but also in her own space within her beautiful home. I have met the most lovely people, many of whom share a passion for growing and working intuitively and gently with the earth.

This is a place where people are trying to live lightly and consciously and the whole energy reflects this. There is a gentleness, which is extremely healing, especially when visiting from the often manic and material energy of Guernsey, albeit I am conscious that if Guernsey could just be left to be, there is a magic and healing that arises from the land here too.

I thoroughly enjoyed all the yoga and it has inspired in me a need to bring more yogic offerings to the Beinspired community, with more options for small and intimate group work and privates too, so that you too can have the opportunity to delve deeper into your practice and into your body especially. More on this another time…I also managed to get to a Reiki session with a local Reiki practitioner reminding me how incredible it is to receive Reiki - bliss!

Of course there are other benefits that Findhorn provides, not least a seemingly endless and beautiful coastline of natural beach and the sea, which wasn’t anywhere near as cold as I anticipated, but I had sat in a mobile sauna at the top of the beach before venturing into the sea for a swim this time, so I have no doubt that made a difference! In fact it was a magical way to end the trip, the sun wasn’t setting until just after 9.45pm so there we were about 9.30pm, swimming in the sea with the sun dropping one side and a rainbow another, as if ending my trip with yet more magic!

This because the other pull for me, is the plethora of stone circles which fill this jaw dropping landscape, especially out in Aberdeenshire, maybe 90-120 minutes drive away to see the really amazing recumbent stone circles, but there are other circles closer by, and I made the most of my time to visit four of them despite the rather wet and misty weather.

I managed to find both Druid’s Temple and Thorax stone circle which I hadn’t been able to find on my previous trip. I also returned to Rothiemay, which was quite funny because I parked up in the entrance to a long drive and went to the field only to find it had lots of cows in it who ran to the other side of the field initially so i started climbing the gate, then the cows ran to me at the gate so I quickly jumped down again. I concluded I wouldn’t be able to get to the stones but when I went back to the car the owners of the property were taking their dog for a walk and they assured me the cows are super friendly and wouldn’t hurt me.

So I plucked up the courage…and all the time was communicating with them, not to freak me out and come too close, they literally followed me around like children. I lost my nerve right at the end and flung myself on the gate, only to drop my car keys in the field so I had to sheepishly go back into the field, to retrieve them. It was worth the effort, the recumbent stone has cup marks and I am obsessed about them!

The cows and Rothiemay recumbent stone circle

The famous Clava Cairns are a 45 minutes drive away from Findhorn, towards Inverness and I managed to get here again too, to soak up the energy once they had been charged by the full moon. It was much busier than January when I had the place to myself. Clava is the supposed Stonehenge of the north and with good reason because this is another uplifting place, very calming and centring and yet more cup marks and some of those beautiful thin menhirs that you find up on the Scottish islands.

By the end of the three nights I was definitely in a different place to whenI arrived, the combination of all the yoga, the stones, the Findhorn energy, the sea, the full moon, the nourishing food, the space, the silence of living on my own in Louise and John’s healing annex, the light, all of it, had worked some magic into my being and I was most definitely left on a delightful high!

Fortunately for me, my practice demands that I check in with my teacher as often as I can. There is nothing quite as helpful to take you deeper into the body than a hands on approach and practising in person is of course much more helpful than practicing online - although that is better than not practising with Louise at all. I feel very honoured and privileged to have found this amazing spot on planet earth and look forward to my next visit, with the boys this time, in September.

The magic of Findhorn

Thank you from my heart to yours!

Dartmoor and being tested!